Targeting Inflammation to Treat Atherosclerosis

The useful part

Simple practices can make some difference, such as exercise or calorie restriction. Over the long haul all that really matters is progress in medicine: building new classes of therapy to repair and reverse the known root causes of aging. An atherosclerotic plaque is an inflammatory environment, in which macrophage cells are overwhelmed by excess cholesterol and toxic derivatives of cholesterol.

How it works

• Inflammatory signaling both attracts macrophages to the plaque and hinders macrophage repair efforts, overall making it more likely that the macrophages will die and add their mass to the growing plaque.
• This is interesting, and perhaps suggests that researchers have not yet found the right inflammatory signals or regulatory mechanisms to target.
• The research community remains interested in further exploration of novel anti-inflammatory strategies, in search of better outcomes.
• IL-6 signaling and pyroptotic cell death, which amplify vascular inflammation and promote plaque progression and instability.
• However, challenges related to safety, the high cost of biologic agents, and optimal patient selection have limited widespread implementation.

What to take from it

Do you want to live a longer life in good health? In general, results were little more effective than drugs that statins that lower cholesterol bound to LDL particles in the bloodstream, which is to say that treatments only modestly slow plaque growth and modestly reduce the risk of a plaque rupture leading to heart attack or stroke. Despite promising advances, clinical translation faces persistent challenges, including increased infection risk, inadequate biomarkers for patient selection, cost constraints, and regulatory and payer requirements for hard clinical endpoints.

Example or evidence

• Further, it distorts the behavior of cells close to the plaque, which can also act to accelerate plaque growth, such as via the transformation of smooth muscle cells into more macrophages.
• Mechanistic Rationale, Clinical Trials, and Regulatory Considerations Atherosclerosis remains the leading cause of global mortality, most commonly manifesting as ischemic heart disease, stroke, and...
• Although age-adjusted cardiovascular mortality has declined in many developed nations, the global burden of atherosclerotic disease continues to rise due to population aging and growth.
• Atherosclerosis is initiated by the retention and modification of apolipoprotein B -containing lipoproteins within the arterial wall and propagated by innate and adaptive immune responses.

Details worth keeping

Targeting Inflammation to Treat Atherosclerosis – Fight Aging! The sooner these treatments arrive, the more lives will be saved. Thus there are good reasons to try anti-inflammatory strategies in the context of atherosclerosis, and a range of studies exist in which varieties of anti-inflammatory therapy were assessed for their ability to affect atherosclerotic plaque.

Related coverage

• Fightaging: Atherosclerosis is the largest cause of human mortality, producing stroke and heart attack when fatty plaques obstructing arteries rupture.
• Scitechdaily: The discovery could lead to more targeted treatments that reduce inflammation linked to high blood pressure.
• Fightaging: Atherosclerosis, the growth of fatty plaques in blood vessel walls, is the largest cause of human mortality.
• Womansworld: Think you have no choice but to accept a higher risk of conditions like Alzheimer's disease, type 2 diabetes and heart disease as you get older?